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The Boston Red Sox announced Monday that fans have already purchased more than 2.3 million tickets for the 2008 season, a record-setting pace.

The club has sold 2,343,204 tickets through this past weekend, when tickets for most single games went on sale. That is a 2.9 percent increase through the same date last year, when fans had purchased 2,274,724 tickets, a difference of 68,480. At the same point in 2005 the number was 2,079,909 and in 2006, the figure stood at 2,135,353 following the first weekend of the on-sale.

Despite the brisk sales, hundreds of thousands of tickets remain for games at Fenway Park in 2008.

“We truly appreciate this demonstration of support from our fans,” commented Red Sox President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “The Red Sox are committed in our efforts to make certain that our tickets get into the hands of more individuals

“To that end, we incorporated several anti-scalping measures in this past weekend’s on-line sale. That resulted in some delays and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this process. The bottom line is that we want more fans to have the opportunity to enjoy the Red Sox at Fenway Park .”

The club will offer tickets for the Green Monster, Right Field Roof Deck, Opening Day (Tuesday, April 8 vs. Detroit), and the nine home games versus the New York Yankees via on line drawings (with telephone options). Details of the drawings will be announced shortly.

"For fans not able to get tickets through the sale this weekend - please be patient and persistent as we will have numerous random drawings, State Day ticket opportunities, and ever changing ticket availability as more tickets do become available throughout the year," Lucchino added.

Red Sox fans have sold out 388 consecutive regular season games at Fenway, the second-highest total in Major League Baseball history. The club has also established attendance records each of the past eight seasons, the first franchise in major league history to accomplish that feat. In 2007, the club sold 2,971,025 tickets.